pasta night in naples.

lucky for all of us, sis's BF is italian ... and a great chef.

so during our naples trip, we had a homemade pasta night.

it was educational for the kids. and needless to say, delicious.

he made the fresh pasta and a delicious herb ricotta filling ...

... and showed us how to form the perfect tortellini.

then he topped it with off fresh basil pesto, extra virgin olive oil and toasted pine nuts.

and that was just the appetizer.

then he made pappardelle, a wide ribbon-like pasta.

and thin capellini noodles.

molto bravo!

and then there was a putanesca sauce, and something with acorn squash ... i thought i'd died and gone to ... well ... naples.

here's sis, suggesting maybe one more dash of something would make it even better.

overkill, after all, runs in our dna. we can't help ourselves.

notice john's wry smile.

and the secret ingredient?

love, of course.

lots of love.

PS: thanks for indulging my use of the "posterize" feature in photoshop. it's kind of addictive.